Menorise; Saturday Sayings

"Respect yourself if you would have others respect you."

(Baltasar Gracian)

To clear away confusion it is Neomarica Gracilis -
common names are Wandering (or Walking) Iris, or Poor Man's Orchid 
though it is neither an iris, nor an orchid!

Menoculayshunal; Final Friday Fiction Edition

It's FFF time again - and I am cheating ever so slightly by re-running one of my tales from a few years back. Mainly because I have to fit several of them into eight weeks... for those of you who perhaps have not engaged with my memoir posts, these do fit into that area of life but, of course, serve quite well in stand-alone episodes. These can also be found under the Canine Chronicles label.

Kaneya, the conqueror.

Stretching full length from nose to tail, Kaneya rose and wandered slowly over to Krishna-ji, sniffing at him and muttering something about doing the rounds.  That was fine. Today he'd leave Kaneya to the task of boundary checking.  The more senior dog had made way for Kaneya, seeing promise in the younger, more robust animal.

Kaneya had arrived through the ashram wall some five years earlier.  He was skinny but in otherwise good condition.  Clear, deep, hazel-brown eyes and a springing step, bushy, red tail, curled up and cocky... this street dog clearly knew how to get by.  He would not have been more than eighteen months when he arrived.  There was not a mark on him, though.  Krishna thought this quite amazing.  Most of the strays who wandered over the rubble of that back wall bore scars from the battle of survival.

Until that day, Krishna had been Lord of the Ashram.  He, it was, who saw off intruders and sorted out the peripheral 'campers'.  He well remembered Kaneya's appearance.  It was late monsoon, so Krishna had taken himself up the back of the ladies hostel to see what further damage might have been done by the previous month's downpours. 

What had been a tumble of bricks was being whittled and washed into a lump of clay, and gradually all semblance of individual bricks in the hillock caused by the collapse was disappearing.  This made it all the easier for inquisitive and foolhardy canines to stick their snouts over the boundary.

Krishna soon sorted them out.  "Off you go!  This is my yard!!  These are my people!!!  SCRAM!!!!"

Kaneya, though, had other ideas.  He looked Krishna straight in the eye with surprising defiance - yet he made all the body language of submission.  "Pranaams, Sir-ji.  I am Kaneya.  They call me conqueror out there." He tossed his head to the left, indicating the hillside behind.  With that, he sat.  Just like that.  No challenge: but neither was there withdrawal.

"This is no place for conquerors. It is a place of peace and love."

Kaneya pondered this for a few moments then asked, "Does God's land not need defenders then?"

Krishna couldn't help himself; he liked this newcomer.  He was both strong yet patient and gentle and knew how to behave.  It dawned on Krishna that perhaps he was not a street dog at all. "Do you have humans?"

"I did.  One day they brought me to this hillside, then left without me.  I didn't understand at first.  I thought they would be back. I stayed where I was, as they had taught me.  They didn't return. Then I had to make friends with other humans down there and show the locals that I was not after their territory.  It was starting to get a bit risky, though.  That's why I came wandering up here.  Followed my nose, I suppose you can say."

Krishna was a bit sad.  He knew how humans could sometimes be.  'Fine as long as we are puppies,' he thought, 'but then we get grown-up and hungry.  Or too big for the space'.  Impulsively he said, "So you think you can live where there are rules and disciplines?"

"Of course.  That is what I was used to.  I can work for my keep.  I know how to chase off the unwanted."

"You'll have to learn who's who around here.  Can't go shouting at all and sundry.  No going into buildings either.  They'll still use a stick on you if you misbehave, even here."  Krishna eyed up the young fellow.

"That's fine, sir-ji.  I can learn from you if you will allow."

Thinking this over, the elder blinked and turned.  Over his shoulder, he said, "I'm Krishna.  Keep yourself in order, and you will be welcome."

Kaneya knew about keeping order.  He remembered his boy and the fun they had and the sorting out who was good and who was not.  He was bright.  He'd learn this new place.  The old dog was obviously ancient, and there could be a leadership place here if he played his tail correctly. 

Over the next two years, he kept close on the heels of the senior.  He found out that Guru-ji was the main man of the ashram and to be bowed to and no barking allowed.  Other men and women in orange and yellow were of high status and were to be approached with caution.  Some of them were super loving and wanted to pat and cuddle.  Others would avoid the dogs.

The kitchen staff ensured food was put out at the end of the day for them.  It wasn't long before Kaneya put on weight and turned into a very handsome boy indeed.

All the ground staff were to be treated with care, as they were the ones who would hit out.  Once it was clear that the established Krishna had taken this one under his paw, they left off trying to chase Kaneya out.  Office staff came and went, but pretty much all of them cared for the dogs.   There was a bit of a shock after his first six months on the ashram when some men came and snatched him into a van.  He was pricked with something, and the next thing he knew, he was waking up again in the same spot but very sore at his back end.  Krishna grinned at him.  "No kiddies for Kaneya!" he quipped. 

Life was good.  Kaneya felt he had come to heaven.  Then one day, a challenge came over the boundary.  For the first time, he took the lead.  Krishna just couldn't keep up.  It was a turning point.

From that day, Krishna followed the younger dog.  Kaneya had conquered.

 © Yamini Ali MacLean 2015

Menoxiousity; Tricky Tech

Well, this is gonna be a short one. I had an idea what to do for Thursday posts this coming few weeks - and then it fell out the bottom end of my brain as so often happens with menosoup. Sigh.

What I can share with you today is that there have been trubs on the horizon concerning technology. Last week, the instything stopped letting me put captions and tags on my photos and prevented me from commenting on others' posts. I can still post photos and can still heart other posts. There is no explanation and no help button in IG. Research (and a couple of fans prepared to DM me) caused me to think that this is a 'black mark' against me for excess of something or someone has taken offence. 

Now, you all know me. I hope you are as taken aback by that possibility as I am. For a start, I only follow folk I actually know and have formed some level of relationship with through either blogging or the tubular. I have less than a 100 on my list. Only a little over 100 follow me back. Now that my brother has decided to start an IG account, I have discovered I cannot follow him. Another friend who followed me just last week, I am prevented from following back. The advice seems to be that this is temporary and everything should go back to normal - but the time frame is undefined. 

Frankly, I'm not that bothered from the point of view of posting. I am, however, miffed at some algorithm, having decided I am one of the bad guys. OR, that someone on this list has reported me - given I rarely actually leave a comment, but that when I do, it is usually directly related to the subject of the post, I can't fathom that possibility.

There's a bit of me that could quite easily just diss the thing. But I enjoy sharing my images, and I do love to see what everyone else is doing. Let's see what pans out...

THEN.... dear old Voovoo, the Vaio is letting age get in the way of operations. The DVD drive is defunct. For a few months now, she has been hissing and spitting a bit on her network adaptor, creating lots of i'net dropouts - sometimes only a couple a day, sometimes every hour or so. On Monday, she finally spat her final dummy. I spent a couple of hours mourning the fact I would have to work only with the YAMroid... till it occurred to me that I ought to be able to hook it up so that Voovoo could 'see' the wifi via YAMroid's signal. 

Turns out others thought this through before me and that YAMroid (and all tablets/ smartphones) can tether in this way. So the ageing tablet (which is also, it must be faced, on its downward leg) is now carrying the even older Voovoo over the ether, and I am sooooo grateful for that!

This turns this post that started with a moan into a Thankful Thursday post!!!